View from the roof of the Golden Temple looking towards the domes and minarets of the Great Aurungzeb Mosque from the Kitchener of Khartoum Collection: 'Views of Benares. Presented by the Maharaja of Benares' by Madho Prasad, c.1905. The mosque was built in the late 17th century by Aurangzeb on the north-west side of the famous Gyan Kup or Well of Knowledge. The Vishwanatha or Visheshwara, 'The Lord of All' is popularly known as the Golden Temple, due to the gold plating on its shikhara (spire) by Ranjit Singh in 1839. Though the current temple was built only in 1777 by Queen Ahalya Bai Holkar of Indore this was the principal Shiva sanctuary for over thousand years.
